Wembley sale on as FA agree terms of £600m deal with Shahid Khan, Fulham’s US billionaire owner

FA bosses have agreed the terms of a £600million sale of Wembley stadium to the US billionaire and Fulham owner Shahid Khan ahead of a crunch meeting of the English game’s governing body on Thursday.

The FA and Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team, have been locked in detailed negotiations about the controversial offloading of the stadium since the talks were first revealed by the Standard in April.

But most of the outstanding sticking points have been resolved in recent days allowing an outline deal to be put before the 10-member FA board for approval, according to sources.

However, it is understood that representatives of the grassroots amateur game on the board have yet to indicate whether they will back the sale of the sport’s ‘family silver’ to a foreign buyer despite assurances about the stadium’s future built into the agreement.

The board’s three national game representatives are Northamptonshire County FA chairman Robert Cotter, former Worcestershire County FA chief executive Mervyn Leggett, and Sussex County FA council member and former Bognor Regis Town manager Jack Pearce.

“The decision rests with these guys who may be voting with pure emotion,” one person close to the discussions told FT.com. The formal meeting is scheduled to start at the FA’s headquarters at Wembley tomorrow at 10am but it is hoped any remaining concerns can be overcome in informal discussions today. “There is a degree of natural caution,” said one insider.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn and chairman Greg Clarke want unanimous backing from the board in order to take the proposal on to the next stage and any votes against the sale would be a major setback.

The deal agreed between the FA and Khan includes a ban on a sponsor being awarded ‘title’ rights to the world’s most famous football venue, and an FA veto over any proposed sponsor involved with ‘unethical’ sectors such as gambling, defence, payday loans or pornography. The FA will have ‘step in’ rights if they fear the quality of the pitch is being compromised and there will also be ‘buy-back’ rights under certain circumstances such as Khan, 68, being arrested or convicted of a crime.

He will be prevented from saddling the stadium with debt and if he sells Wembley for more than he paid, the FA will be entitled to a share of the profit.

The FA have also won agreement for a number of their ‘red lines’ including a guarantee that Wembley will be made available for major football internationals and the FA Cup Final.

However, the England team will play their matches at other stadiums around the country during the autumn months when Wembley will reserved for Jacksonville Jaguars NFL games.

The FA plan to plough the proceeds of the sale into an ambitious programme of investment in grassroots facilities such as all-weather pitches.

FA surveys have found that only one in three pitches in England is “of adequate quality” and that poor facilities are always “the number one issue” for grassroots clubs and players.

The bodies that helped fund the £757million cost of rebuilding Wembley stadium 20 years ago - Sport England, the Mayor’s London Development Agency and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport - are said to have agreed to the draft terms.

If the FA board back the deal tomorrow it will be put before the FA’s council - the 127 members of which are mainly drawn from the amateur game — at a meeting next month. There was no comment from Khan or the FA.